Tuesday, December 31, 2013

So, I read
65 books in 2013, all SF and fantasy. I kept track, because otherwise at the
end of the year I only remember the last five or six that I finished recently.
Actually, I read a few more—my count doesn’t include George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I
began in the summer of 2012 and read mostly on my iPad while commuting by bus.
I finished up A Dance with Dragons in
July, and officially joined the throngs demanding: “Write faster, George R.R.
Martin, write faster!”

The list of
books doesn’t include those I started and decided not to finish. I’m not in
graduate school anymore, and I don’t have to slog through novels that I don’t
really like, darn it! I doubt if any of them were really bad—just not what I
needed to be reading at the time.

To cite one
example, I began Neil Gaiman’s Anansi
Boys and got about a quarter of the way through before getting bored and
frustrated with the protagonist (or one of them anyway) who was getting pushed
around by his long-lost brother—they’re both sons of an incarnation of Anansi,
the West African Spider god.

Neil
Gaiman’s a fine writer, and it’s probably a good book, but I couldn’t see
making my way through the whole novel to find out if the brother was ever
actually going to grow a spine. (I can recommend Gaiman’s novel Neverwhere, by the way, which I read a
couple of years ago. It has kind of a similar structure—wimpy protagonist is
forced to eventually become a hero—but with more action and more interesting
characters.)

The one book
I read that wasn’t a novel was the biography Robert A Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, by William H.
Patterson, Jr. It’s a very good look at the first half of the life of one of
the 20th century’s most influential science fiction writers. I think
Patterson oversells his case a little in the Forward as he tries to argue for
Heinlein’s significance in American culture, and I could have stood to read a
little less about Heinlein’s attempt at a political career in 1930s California,
but aside from those minor quibbles, I found it an entertaining and informative
work. I love reading biographies about writers.

Anyway, I’ll
attach the complete list in a Page on the right. Here, I’ll just list my
favorites. I used a highly rigorous five-star system that mostly consisted of:
“Did I like this? Did I like it a lot? Did I really really like it A LOT?” In
chronological order:

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois
McMaster Bujold

The Apocalypse Codex, Charles Stross

The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (final
book)

Spin, Robert Charles Wilson

Fathom, Cherie Priest

Great North Road, Peter F. Hamilton

The Daedalus Incident, Michael J.
Martinez

Gradisil, Adam Roberts

The Explorer, James Smythe

Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie

I know, I
know: I should probably broaden my reading a bit and occasionally open a book
that doesn’t feature space travel, aliens, or magic. Maybe next year.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Yes, turkey and stuffing and family and friends, and taking my son to the bar . . . good times. Now back to the long slog of work and shopping and getting to Christmas, December deadlines and holidays, and the New Year.

I have read 59 books this year, all of them SF/Fantasy. Maybe I'm in a rut. In the laundry room, of a community bookshelf, someone left the Robert A. Heinlein biography (Part 1: the early years), and I'm reading that right now. It's pretty good. Because this volume focuses on his early life, I don't expect to learn much about the details of how he wrote Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land, or even The Puppet Masters (one of the first "adult" SF novels I ever read), but you can start to see some of the incidents and experiences that must have shaped his later writing. I think the biographer overplays Heinlein's influence on the 20th century in his intro, but still: Heinlein was a huge influence on science fiction, and SF has been a big influence on technology and culture (excuse me while I check my smartphone), so maybe he's got a point. Good book, so far. And while it's generally positive (it's an "authorized" biography, after all) it doesn't make Heinlein out to be a saint. Just a guy trying to find his way in the confusing days of the early 20th century.

(Sometimes I remember that I'm living in the 21st century, with access to information from all around the world on a computer I can slip into the side pocket of my cargo pants. Which is maybe more useful to most of us than a moonbase—although I still want that).

Saw the movie Europa Report the other day. Great. Sort of like Gravity with hints of Alien, although, be warned, if you're looking for monsters, you'll wait a long time. Still, it captures the claustrophobia and fear of a long space voyage and the dangers to be encountered when you're a long, long way from home.

Posting two new chapters of Prodigal Prince right now, to make up for the fact that I'm late this week. I try to at least post a new chapter every Sunday, but the holiday weekend got out of control.

And I thank my friends who have been kind enough to read chapters of the new novel I'm working on, The Black Guard. As I think I mentioned before, it's another urban fantasy. With automatic weapons. Gunfights! Explosions! Giant spiders! What more could anyone want? Don't you want to read it? Right now? Please?

Sunday, November 24, 2013

One of the
things I’m giving thanks for right now is Chimes of Midnight, Seanan McGuire’s
latest October Daye book. I bought it at Windycon, a few weeks ago, but I had a
few library books to finish, so I only started reading it last night.

It’s a great
book, of course. Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors, But one thing I
really appreciate about her is the fact that, as busy as the heroes get, they
manage to get something to eat. Burritos and sandwiches so far, but at least
Toby Daye and her friends actually pause to have a meal from time to time.

It happens
in books and movies and on TV all the time: The hero sits down to breakfast, or
lunch, or dinner, takes one bite, and then the phone rings and he/she is off to
deal with some emergency. Anytime someone (usually Mom, right?) makes a big
breakfast with eggs and bacon and sausage and pancakes and even scones, the
hero—whether it’s a cop or a high school kid—grabs a piece of toast, muttering
“Sorry, no time for breakfast, gotta run,” and leaves.

Really, he
or she should should get hit by a metal frying pan on the way out of the
kitchen.

I’m not
saying I’ve never wasted any food at any time I my life. But I always make sure
my fictional characters eat.

*****

In other
news, I’m working on a new novel, which some of you have read a chapter of. It
features a demon-fighting ex-cop named Leo Burden, who’s sort of based on the
mafia vigilantes I used to read about in high school.

(Some days I
think I’m doing nothing but recycling my ideas from my reading in the 1970s.)

I need to be
writing something all the time. I’m waiting to hear about A Bar Called
Revelations (my other urban fantasy novel) that I’ve got out at a publisher—which
reminds me, I need to send them another e-mail reminding them about my query
from June. But I don’t want to start a sequel to that book until I know something
definite about this one. I’ve done that before, and I’ve decided it’s better to
go on to something completely different while I’m waiting. Having a story to
work on is just generally conducive to my mental health, so I’m happy to have
something going.

I did a
thing where I broke the full document of Revelations into two documents,
because at 600+ pages, Microsoft Word apparently can’t handle a complete spellcheck,
and I keep finding typos. Some of them are mistakes that Word wouldn’t find
anyway (“hair red” for “red hair”), so I need to go through it again.

So my
challenge for the rest of the year is balancing those two out, at least until
I’ve done a semi-thorough edit on Revelations again.

My other
challenge is keeping up with this blog more consistently. And posting a new
Prodigal Prince chapter at least once a week, or more often. So look! Over there!
It’s a new chapter! Enjoy!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

So I had a fine time at Windycon last weekend. Got to meet Jim C. Hines, a fine fantasy author, hear him read a story, and get his autograph on my copy of Libriomancer. While I sort of prefer his "Princess" series, in which Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty team up to do battle against evil in a fairy tale kingdom (as others have said, it's Charlie's Angels with swords and magic), I do recommend Libriomancer highly, and can't wait to read the sequel.

Speaking of books, I bought a bunch! As I always do. I just need to get through one more of my library books before I can start the new October Daye book, Chimes at Midnight, by Seanan McGuire, an urban fantasy series that I enjoy greatly.

Went to two good panels: One on interstellar commerce, which produced lots of ideas for things that other races might trade, which will be useful for my Foxe stories, since the Aligned Worlds is mostly designed to facilitate interstellar trade more than anything else. The other was, "Should you self-publish?" And I think right now the answer for me is still "No." I still want to find an actual real-life publisher, mostly because marketing my work, which is the bulk of what you have to do when you self-publish, isn't really in my skill set. And as noted SF writer Eric Flint pointed out, when you're marketing your writing, you're not actually doing your writing. And when readers find an author they like, they want more, soon—or they'll go find someone else.

Other thoughts:

• I planted my flyers for the site on the "freebie" table. Not sure how many con-goers (if any) picked them up, but it's the start of an experiment. I've got Capricon coming up in February.

• On that note, I'll be posting the next chapter of Prodigal Son later today. Onward!

• Also, I'm working on a new series—another urban fantasy story, with automatic weapons. And I'm looking for friends to read chapter one and give me feedback! Please?

Friday, November 8, 2013

Greetings.
If you’re visiting this blog because you happened to pick up one of the flyers
I left out at Windycon, that means I didn’t visit Kinko’s in vain.

I’m John.
“Light Years Away” is my blog, designed to inflict some of my writing on the
world in hopes of attracting a publisher, or an agent, or at least a few groupies. In
“Stories,” over to the right, you’ll find chapters of Prodigal Prince, my SF action-adventure novel. I’ve moved Chapter
One to the top so you can start in the right place.

You’ll also
find a few short stories featuring my series character, an interstellar agent
named Foxe—a sort of James Bond/Jack Bauer type who travels throughout the
known galaxy. He’s armed and dangerous, but not always as ruthless as he
pretends to be. You can find out about his origins (in my mind) here: http://grantson1.blogspot.com/2013/09/foxe-origins_6.html

My newest
short story about Foxe, “Meat,” should also be over there on the right.

I’ve also
written an urban fantasy novel that I’m shopping around: A Bar Called Revelations, featuring bar owner Luther Kane, an
ex-priest with the uncanny ability to detect demonic evil in the people around him—who always seem to wander into his bar
at the wrong moment.

Me? I live
in Chicago, where I write and edit newsletters on management and communication.
I’ve been doing it for over 20 years, so I must be doing something right.

I don’t
think I do conventions right. I don’t go to parties, I’m not good at mingling,
and I tend to keep to myself. I like the panel discussions: authors and fans
talking about books and science and characters and movies, and, yeah, Doctor
Who.

But I keep
going to Windycon. And Capricon. Because they’re tons of fun, I get to buy way
too many books, and I see authors I like. Sometimes I even get up my nerve to
talk to them.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

So I had a
bunch of these printed up and I’m taking them to Windycon, the SF convention I
go to every year, and I’ll dump them on the table next to all the other
materials (cards, newsletters, pens) that other aspiring writers, publishers,
and bloggers leave. My goal is to see if any con-goers pick one or two up—and
then to see if there’s any surge in the traffic here as a result.

Realistically,
I don’t expect to see an explosion of interest. I’ve picked these things up at
past conventions and, yeah, I don’t always check them out later. Oops. I do
like the pens. I’m still using two of them that I picked up at the convention
last year.

But there’s this famous quote from some advertising guy: “Fifty
percent of the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but the problem is, I
don’t know which fifty percent.” And since I’ve done next to nothing to promote
my blog up until now, anything I do has to be an improvement. Right?

Sunday, November 3, 2013

So I saw
Ender’s Game today. Spent the weekend waffling back and forth: Friday I
definitely wanted to see it, Saturday I decided no, then today I woke up and
wanted to go.

Indecision?
Well, part of it was based on the fact that Orson Scott Card (who wrote the
novel that the film is based on) is a homophobic twit. But mostly I worried
that this would be another example of Hollywood’s idea of what a science
fiction movie should be: A vague dystopian future, a few spaceships, a
completely simplistic conflict between the haves and the have-nots, and a bunch
of explosions in space. Put them all the elements together, bring Matt Damon or
Tom Cruise or Will Smith into the mix, and release the film in time for summer.
Or just call it Star Trek and hope nobody will notice that it’s nothing more
than special effects, a plot twist, and someone yelling “KHAAAAN!”

But I
finally decided I wanted to see the film, and I’m glad I did. I read the book
many years ago, and the movie followed it pretty well. The performances are
generally excellent. Asa Butterfield, playing Ender, was great, portraying a
range of emotions from confusion, anger, determination, humor, and especially
betrayal. Hailee Steinfield and Abigail Breslin were pretty wonderful. Harrison
Ford was raspy, maybe a little too simplistic, but nicely balanced by Viola
Davis, questioning the morality of everything Ford’s character is doing, even
though he’s firmly (and in some ways legitimately) convinced that his actions
are necessary in order to save the human race. But I’ve got to say I really
liked Nonso Anozie, who played Ender’s sergeant throughout the film. You would
definitely drop and give him 20 pushups, or 40, if he demanded it.

It’s a
morally problematic story, but that’s the point. What’s justified when you feel
everything you believe in is threatened with total destruction? What would you
do? What should you never do? I’m sure not trying to make this into a 9/11
allegory—the book was written in the 1980s—but it does sort of open the door to
thinking about how far we should be willing to go to ensure our safety.

Okay, that
was little longer than I intended.

Other
things:

The movie I
most want to see from the previews is Mr. Peabody & Sherman:

The other
one is I, Frankenstein—I gather it’s about some monster. And it’s got Yvonne
Strahovsky!

(That's her on the right.)

I sent my
novel A Bar Called Revelations to Ace in June. This is around the time they
suggest I might have gotten a response from them, but so far I haven’t heard
anything. Which is fine—obviously these things take time. I did send an email
asking about the status a few days ago, but they haven’t responded yet. I may
send it to Baen Books next—they publish a lot of urban fantasy, and Revelations
may fit with their list, but the last time I sent them a submission to them I
waited for over a year for a response. Which is also fine, but I’ve realized
lately that I may have misunderstood the term “simultaneous submissions”—that
may apply to sending a bunch of manuscripts at once to the same publisher, not
sending them out to other publishers. So I may look at sending Revelations out
to more than one publisher at a time after this.

And I’ve
just recently started work on a new and different (sort of) urban fantasy-type novel.
So far I only have about three or four chapters plotted out and I’ve learned
from experience that without a clear path to an ending I need more than a good
opening to make a book work. Still, I like this latest idea, and I’m happiest
when I’m actually writing something.

My Internet
connection? I don’t want to jinx anything by talking about it.

And finally,
will my blog traffic rise because I talked about Ender’s Game, the way it did
when I posted my thoughts on Gravity a few weeks ago? We’ll see.

PS: But what
about Foxe, you wonder? The suspense mounts in the new chapter I’ve posted.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

You might have noticed that I've renamed the blog. "Experiment in Terror" reflected the fact that I knew nothing about putting together a blog when I started this process, and I was nervous about putting it out there. So terrified, in fact, that I didn't use my real name.

("Grant" was my father's middle name, and the name that he was frequently called by, especially by my mother. So I really am John Grant's Son).

But now, under "About Me," you can see not only my picture (and my award! I won an award once!) but my real name. So I guess the fear factor has gone down.

The new name reflects my interest in space opera: Star Trek/Star Wars-type interstellar action, with exotic aliens, strange planets, heroes and villains, and frequent explosions. Yes, I've been working on an urban fantasy series, complete with vampires, ghosts, and demons, but for right now I plan on keeping those two universes separate. We'll see.

Anyway, as a bonus, I'm adding a new Foxe story to the site. "Takeover strategies" isn't really new—I wrote it several years ago, but after a brisk edit, I think it works reasonably well. Feel free to tell my what you think.

I need to do more than just post chapters of Prodigal Prince. No excuses. Explanations? Well, maybe.

• New Story. I've been working on a new Foxe short story. It's coming together, and I'll probably post it sometime this week. The thing with stories about Foxe is I'm not sure how meaningful they are if you don't know who Foxe is from the start, which (I suspect) makes them difficult to get published elsewhere. David Drake can send a Hammer's Slammers story (interstellar mercenaries, and a GREAT series, really, go out and read it now) to a top magazine and everyone will know what he's talking about. But so far only a handful of my loyal readers will really understand who Foxe is in the universe I'm trying to build for him. So the shorter stories about him are exercises—and also ideas I can't let go of. After "Mind Games," I've got only a few that I'm really happy with, although the upcoming one, "Meat," seems to hold some promise. And an earlier one, "Stay Angry," still feels good to me.

• Internet issues. AT&T "upgraded" my Internet connection to a Uverse system. I spent a few days freaking out about having to install a new modem, and although I was able to set it up and get it sort of working, it still sometimes goes in and out, particularly when I'm watching videos on Netflix. Sure, I can still get work done, and most of the time the Internet connection is fine, so I'm mostly just griping. But still. Hard to concentrate when you're wondering about when and if your broadband is going down.

• The government. Boy, it was hard to concentrate while wondering whether we were going to head into financial apocalypse.

• Stuff. Okay, sometimes I'm just lazy. That's probably the main reason. I do enjoy my job and the people at my office (and the fact that I can work at home whenever necessary), but it still consumes a certain amount of time and energy, and then there's taking care of stuff at home, trying to watch the occasional episode of Dr. Who, and getting up to do it all again after I've stayed up too late reading in bed. (Right now I hope to finish Peter Hamilton's new book, Great North Road, in the next night or two. Hamilton writes these incredibly lengthy SF novels, maybe longer than they need to be, but for fantastic, world-spinning science fiction/space opera, he's worth every page. Go set aside a few months to read his Void trilogy. Get them all at once, because you won't want to stop at the end of each book.)

• I think that's it. Coming attractions: I'm keeping a list of every book I've read this year, and in 2014 I'll post it, along with my ratings, and maybe some reviews.

• Bullet points. I love'em.

In the meantime, I am posting the latest chapter of Prodigal Prince. Right about . . . Now.

Trying to wrap my mind around some comments on the movie Gravity, but I kept going off on a tangent about Star Trek Into Darkness, which is the other movie I saw in theater this year. I liked Star Trek Into Darkness, despite my annoyance over the title (and other issues), but Gravity makes you really feel like what it must be like to be floating in space, with the Earth either over you or under you—and then spinning out of control like Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey. A real trek into darkness.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

I had lunch
a few days ago with a friend who’s a published author. We met in the 1980s at
meetings of the Mystery Writers of America (Midwest Chapter), which held
monthly meetings in downtown Chicago.

I loved
those meetings. I never missed them if I could help it all, and I dragged my
friends, co-workers, and even my wife to them as often as I could for drinks,
dinner, and discussions about the finer points of murder.

The world
has changed a lot since then. The publishing industry has consolidated into a
few big publishers and a lot of smaller, independent ones, e-books are now a
force to be reckoned with (and don’t get me wrong—I love reading e-books on my
iPad), and anyone can put out an e-book on Amazon.

But it sure
seemed simpler when I went to my first MWA meeting. I was suddenly in the same
room with a combination of wannabe writers like me and a bunch of successful,
published authors. They may not have been making millions of dollars writing NY Times bestsellers (although some of
them eventually did), but the formula for success they shared was basically
this: Write a book, get some feedback, and find an agent—or maybe send it
directly to a publisher. That worked for at least a few writers in the group. Keep
doing it, and eventually you might see your books on the shelves of your local
bookstore. Back when there were actual bookstores.

My friend has
written a bunch of really good crime novels. They range from a series of books featuring
a hard-boiled Chicago cab driver to a couple of novels about a reformed
terrorist, and then to a sequence of police procedurals in the 1960s era. I
confess that I haven’t read every single book he’s written, especially since I
switched my focus from mysteries to science fiction in the mid-2000s, but he’s
a fine writer. And right now he’s frustrated at not knowing how to sell the
books he’s already published, and wondering how he’s going to get a publisher
to put out his most recent works.

And me?
After almost 30 years, I’m sort of nowhere. Lots of stuff written, none of it
sold. One award for an SF story. One detective novel almost published, except
that the publisher went out of business.

I could
simply publish Prodigal Prince on
Amazon. And that’s a serious option. I have another novel I’m sending around to
actual publishers, an urban fantasy, and I have higher hopes for that than for
my two Foxe novels because I think it’s more original, and it fits into an
established niche without being too derivative.

But I sure
hope someday I can find a publisher, because I don’t think I’m suited for a
career of trying to market and promote my own work all by myself. I admit I’ve
made a lot of mistakes. I’m certainly going about this all wrong.

The problem
is, I can’t stop. I read a story once about Madeleine L’Engle, who wrote A
Wrinkle In Time. One night after a lot of failure she decided to quit
writing. Then, as she was walking upstairs to go to bed, she thought of a story
about a writer who decided to quit writing, and by the time she reached the top
of the stairs she realized that was her next story.

Or something
like that. Maybe I remember it wrong. But even so, that’s me. For better or
worse, I’m going to keep going.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Last year Harper Voyager announced they were accepting unsolicited submissions for a 2-week period in October. And I got Prodigal Prince (titled Prodigal Son at the time) ready and sent it whoosh! into cyberspace. With hope, but not expecting any WE LOVE YOUR BOOK HERE'S A MILLION DOLLAR ADVANCE kind of response.

Then nothing, and if I recall correctly there was sort of a deadline for responses, which meant, "If you haven't heard from us, that pretty much means we said no." Fair enough. I figured they'd get a few thousand manuscripts, and that meant that weary slush-pile readers deserved a break. At some point I realized that they were passing, and moved on.

(I submitted to Baen Books before this, and after a year I wondered if no response meant HELL NO, but I got up my courage at a convention to ask Eric Flint and he advised me to be patient. And a few months after I received what was actually a pretty nice rejection letter, not exactly a form letter, so I guess it was right to wait a while.)

Then today I got an email from Harper Voyager saying, yes, they were passing on my book. On the one hand, it's been a year and I pretty much figured they'd declined, so why are you sending me this now?

On the other hand, just as I'm writing this I thought maybe they'd held off on rejecting it because they saw something in it that made them not hurl back a rejection letter outright. So, okay. In college I was once advised to try to find a way to turn what I saw as a negative into something positive. So maybe that's how I should look at this. Anyway, at least I got a response, which maybe says something good about the experience.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

I wrote
“Mind Games” back in 2006 (according to the date on the earliest version I can
find on my computer). It was my first Foxe story, an attempt to see if I could
transform the action-spy hero I created in my misspent youth (see "Foxe: The origins") into an action-SF hero I could write novels about (See the
first two chapters of Prodigal Prince, and more to come).

How well I
succeeded is anyone’s guess. I did get some decent criticism on the story in a
critique session at Windycon (Jody-Lyn Nye said I write good action scenes) and
I tried to work that feedback into subsequent revisions when I submitted them
to magazines. Magazines that pretty much ignored them. Not that I’m bitter or
anything.

To be honest,
though, I can see why. There’s nothing earth-shatteringly original in “Mind
Games,” nothing that would stand out in a slush pile of wildly creative stories
from 126 other unknowns that came in the same day. But I think the elements
still add up to the kind of action-SF short story I was trying to write: interstellar
intrigue on a shipboard casino, a devious villain, an innocent to be rescued,
and a satisfying amount of violence at the conclusion.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The No. 1
rule of blogging is to do it consistently and often. The No. 1 danger is
starting off full of energy and enthusiasm and then slacking off, like dieting
or piano lessons.

I’m still in
the experimental stage with Experiment in Terror, although I’m learning how to
do the basic stuff so I can move off that soon. Right now I’m rewriting the
first FOXE story I ever wrote (at least in this century), but that’s kind of a
dodge that I’m using to avoid the mind-numbing terror surrounding the prospect
of actually trying to publicize my blog and attract new people. People who
aren’t my beloved Facebook friends! Who might not automatically like me! I
might get *gasp*criticized!
Oh the humanity!

So one day
pretty soon I’m going to screw my courage to the sticking place, use my real
name, and launch a blog for real, using all the information I’ve been
collecting (but haven’t really read yet) about publicizing a blog, and actually
try to gain a readership beyond my list of Facebook friends.

It’ll be
scary. That’s why I’m sharing it with you now, because if I can talk about the
fear now, the real thing may just be less threatening. My father used to tell
me not to cross a bridge until you come to it, which is good advice. But I also
think that thinking about how you’re going to get across the bridge once you
get there is a big help in taking that first step over the water.

Friday, September 6, 2013

The excerpt
posted the other day was from a science fiction adventure novel of mine called
Prodigal Prince. The hero of the tale is an interstellar secret agent named
Foxe. He’s been characterized as a James Bond figure, which is fair, although I
like to think of him as more of a Jack Bauer type: a tough but sensitive action
hero who’s obsessed with accomplishing his mission no matter what it takes, or
how little sleep he gets.

Foxe works
for an interstellar espionage agency called ARI: Aligned Research and
Intelligence, which is an arm of the Aligned Worlds, a loose confederation of
planets inhabited by humans and aliens who are mostly concerned with matters of
trade and commerce. ARI’s role is to step in whenever anything might threaten
peaceful relations and endanger business between worlds.

But Foxe has
his origins in an earlier century.

I created
him when I was about 12 or 13. He was inspired by the “Men’s Adventure”
paperback novels being published by the truckload in the 1970s. I bought and
read them obsessively:

• The
Executioner: Mack Bolan, a soldier home from Vietnam after a family tragedy
sparked by Mafia loan sharks, declares “War Against the Mafia” and takes on the
mob with an arsenal of automatic weapons and a calm trigger finger.

• The
Destroyer: Remo Williams, a cop convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, who is
“executed” and then recruited to become the enforcement arm for a supersecret
government agency called CURE. He’s trained in the martial arts by Chiun, the
Master of Sinanju, to become the deadliest assassin in the world.

• The Death
Merchant: Richard Camellion, CIA agent, a master of death, disguise, and
destruction, who takes on impossible missions around the globe that typically
require him to take on hordes of KGB agents, Nazis, Red Chinese, international
terrorists, and the occasional mad scientist.

Yeah. I
know. This is the kind of stuff I read in high school. Along with Doc Savage
novels, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, some Agatha Christie, and my first Raymond
Chandler books. A mixed bag, to say the least. In my defense, I sort of knew
these paperback vigilante/spy novels were kind of awful, but I have to admit
that as a somewhat nerdy adolescent male I did find something satisfying about
reading scene after scene of bad guys being gunned down by tough-guy heroes
with automatic weapons (or deadly martial arts skills) while saving the world,
and the girl.

Foxe came
out of that. In his original incarnation he was Ernest Radley Foxe (the name
came from James Hadley Chase, a popular thriller writer of the time) and he was
a New York City private detective who took on contract missions for the CIA. I
wrote two novel-length adventures featuring him when I was about 13, and then
two more in my “mature” phase, when I was 17 and 18. So that’s four
novel-length “works” I wrote about him before I started college.

Anyway,
sometime in the early 21st century I came across a carton of these
books and started reading them again. One interesting thing that happened was
that I quickly realized that some of the books I thought weren’t that good when
I first read them really aren’t that good. I’d thought I was missing something,
but it turns out I already had some kind of discernment about character and
narrative even when I was in 8th grade. Of course what I remember
most from them is the sex scenes—some of the old paperbacks literally open
right up to the parts where the girl walks out naked and tries to seduce the
hero. What can I say? I was still sneaking peeks at my father’s collection of
Playboys.

Ahem. So I
was reading a Death Merchant novel one morning when I should have been doing
real work, and I thought, this is so completely unbelievable for so many
reasons, but one of them is that no guy could travel around to around the world
killing so many people without getting caught somewhere along the line no
matter how many fake passports he had. “Now, if he was going to other planets .
. .” I thought. And that’s when I got this great idea for a science fiction
adventure novel:

What if one
of these adventure heroes was in outer space? Maybe not the Death Merchant, but
I had this one character, Foxe—what if he was in outer space? And a secret
agent? And maybe not quite as ridiculous as a 1970s action hero, but still
pretty deadly? Hmm . . .

So there you
have it. I like to think that this version of Foxe (first name Erick) is the 26th-century
descendant of the original Ernest Radley Foxe, although I can hardly imagine
THATguy
ever settling down to get married and have kids. And I like to think that this
guy is a little more realistic, although, hey, he’s an action hero: deadly,
indestructible, and irresistible to women. Well, that last part is strictly a
fantasy. I have to draw the line somewhere.

Anyway, after all that, I've posted Chapter two of Prodigal Prince. Enjoy.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Another experiment. "Prodigal Prince" is the first chapter of a science fiction action/adventure novel I've been working on off and on for the last several years. Someday I'll explain the origins of Erick Foxe, interstellar secret agent, but for right now I just want to play with images and see how a chapter looks on a blog.

I may ultimately publish the whole novel on Amazon or something. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Here's the full text of "Oracle," the story which won the 2009 ISFiC Writer's Contest and was published in the 2009 WindyCon program book. I'm pretty proud of it. It's about freedom of the press, with aliens, on a space station. In other words, "SPACE BLOGGER!"

This was kind of a big deal for me, since it came at the end of a year when my son graduated high school and started college, and also a tumultuous year when I got laid off and got my job back. I'm still very invested in stories about communicating the truth, even when it's inconvenient to the powers that be. I've got a few other stories dealing with journalists in alien environments, which will show up at some point.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Okay, what am I doing? Well, as the name suggests, this is an experiment. And it fills me with terror, which is why I'm calling it "an experiment." So I can flee like a jackrabbit if I decide I can't handle the prospect of putting everything I've got out here on cyberspace. Run! Run! The horror! The horror!

Okay, I'm a little more calm now.

Why a blog? For a couple reasons:

1. Writers have blogs. Successful writers use them to share news about their work. And to talk about whatever's on their minds. The blog I've linked to on my front page right now is, in fact, named "Whatever," by John Scalzi, one of my favorite science fiction writers (University of Chicago graduate!). Yesterday he won a Hugo* award.

2. Publishers these days expect writers to take an active role in marketing their work. Having a blog that showcases my stories and gets some serious attention on the Internet could help me attract a publisher.

3. I want to be able to share some of my stories with a wider audience. I'm planning to post some stories I wrote that didn't get published anywhere (although I admit that I could/should have been more persistent about submitting them to magazines, online and virtual, but that's another topic and possibly a subject for psychoanalysis). I'll post those that I still like, after editing them again, and maybe they'll attract some attention. But even if they never show up in Analog or Asimov's, I'll know that they're out there and people might read and enjoy them. Which is what every writer wants.

What else is going on here? Well . . .

1. For right now, my name on the blog is "John Grantson," although my email address with my name is clearly displayed with my name at the top. My father's name was Edward Grant Cowan, and for much of his life he was known as Grant, and I'm happy to use that as a nom de plume for now. It will change (along with my email address) as I make the change to a blog I'm going to use as a tool to publicize my work. The name "Experiment in Terror" will probably change too as I overcome my fears.

2. I spent some time today learning how to post pictures, links, and pages that link to stories I want to post. I've posted the beginning of a story called "Oracle," which won a contest in 2009, as a test. I'll put the rest of the story on the site soon. And others.

3. I'm using the Google tool Blogger right now. That may change as I explore other platforms, and if anyone has recommendations for different platforms, great. Please tell me what's easy and what tricks I need to know.

4. I don't know what I don't know. I spent an hour today trying to figure out why new items didn't show up under the "Stories" bar, until I finally tried changing templates—the display image that shows up behind the actual blog. And then everything looked fine. I'm sure I'm in for a lot of frustration here.

5. Comments? That sort of scares me, because once you put your stuff out on the Internet any troll can come in and savage you. I'm still figuring out how they work on this platform, so that will take some time. But please feel free to share any feedback you have on the blog as it exists now, or any stories I post when I put them up. Once I switch to a "pro" blog, I hope I'll be able to deal with anything that comes through.

I'm trying to be as honest as possible here about my hopes and fears and plans for this new stage of my attempt to become the next John Scalzi/Jim Butcher/George R. R. Martin, or just the first John Cowan. So what's next? I don't know. Maybe I'll chicken out. But I know I have to keep trying.

Open roads,

John

* Hugos are awarded by fan votes at the World Science Fiction each year.